Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to a discussion thread at this blog:
I have 140 wildly supportive comments posted (with links!) at the “People Are Talking” section of the site, Sparky. There is no other blogger on the face of Planet Internet who has even a fraction of the number of wildly enthusiastic endorsements that I have won for myself.
Tell me one other blogger who has his name in the Acknowledgments section of peer-reviewed academic research (saying that he was the person whose views on investing inspired the research). And we’re not talking about any old research paper here. We are talking about research that a Ph.D. graduate from Princeton says belongs in the Journal of Finance, the top journal in the field.
Are you joking?
You are right that people do not post comments here. And people do not link to me. And people do not write articles about me.
They are afraid to do so.
I had tons of support before Greaney threatened to kill family members of any poster who expressed support for me. Do you think that might have something to do with the lack of comments here?
And it’s not just the death threats. The death threats were advanced by social misfits who in ordinary circumstances no one would pay attention to for two seconds. The bigger problem is the failure of people like Jack Bogle and Bill Bernstein and Larry Swedroe and Scott Burns to speak up and demand that something be done about those death threats and all the other intimidation tactics that you Goons have employed.
When Bogle speaks up, it is over, Sparky.
From that day forward, I will have not just hundreds of comments at this blog every day, I will have thousands.
That’s why I built the Retire Early board at Motley Fool into the most successful board in that site’s history in the first place. I want thousands of comments every day. And I want a thriving community of people helping those thousands of people to save and invest more effectively.
When your prison term is announced, that news is going to go viral. And then it will be over. The ugly part, I mean. The wonderful, life-enhancing exploration of the realities of saving and investing will continue for years and years and years.
Do I like it that my success depends on you being sent to prison?
I do not like it one tiny bit.
That’s why I have spoken out against the intimidation tactics going back to the first day.
I don’t control everything that happens in this crazy, mixed-up world of ours, do I, Sparky?
If it were up to me, there would be thousands of comments here every day and you would not be on your way to prison. It’s not up to just me. So I have been forced to watch it play out this other way instead.
I wish you all the best, my long-time abusive posting friend.
Rob
The Pink Unicorn says
Rob,
No one is afraid to post. I posted before asking you to provide proof (not just a link to your own comments) and you decided to delete that post.
Rob says
This article shows that LOTS of people are VERY afraid of the Buy-and-Hold Mafia, Pink:
http://arichlife.passionsaving.com/the-buy-and-hold-crisis/academic-researcher-silenced-by-threats-to-get-him-fired-from-his-job-after-showing-dangers-of-buy-and-hold-investing-strategies/
If lots of people were not afraid, this never could have happened.
Jack Bogle posts at the Bogleheads Forum. Why has Jack not taken action on the Lindauer matter?
When Jack fails to speak out, that sends a signal to all community members that he is wiling to tolerate Lindauer’s posting tactics.
Not acceptable.
Not good.
This needs to change.
And it is up to us humans to change it.
There are no other possibilities.
Rob
The Pink Unicorn says
Rob,
That is your own post. Anyone can make a post with their own comments, but that does not constitute proof. Show something from a verifiable third party.
Rob says
Wade Pfau is a third party, Pink.
The article gives scores of comments from him.
You threatened him because you don’t want millions of middle-class investors hearing the story that this third-party wants to tell them.
That’s why you are going to prison, Pink. You have done huge damage to millions of middle-class people with your 11-year Campaign of Terror.
I am going to overcome your Campaign of Terror. I am going to reach millions of middle-class people and tell them all the things that they very much need to know about what the last 32 years of peer-reviewed academic research says.
You will fight me and fight me and fight me.
And I will win.
Why?
Because love always beats hate in the end, my old friend.
If hate won, we wouldn’t be here today.
Love always wins. I have time on my side.
Don’t let the bad guy gets you down, Pink.
Rob
The Pink Unicorn says
More lies from you, Rob. I have not threatened him. I have never spoken to him. I can read all the comments that have been posted and have seen his direct words to you as to harm YOU have done to him.
The only threats I see are from you when you say I and others ate going to prison. In fact, all the hate I see in posts are coming from you.
Rob says
I have a funny feeling that we will hear a different story from you when you are testifying under oath, Pink.
I am 100 percent certain that we will hear a different story from Wade.
I have zero ability to send you to prison. So how could my words re this possibly constitute a threat?
I talk about your prison sentence because I want to do what I can to reduce it. We reduce it by opening the entire internet up to honest posting on SWRs and scores of other critically important investment-related topics and thereby bringing the economic crisis to an end. I am confident that if you join my effort to do that it will result in a reduced prison sentence for you. Most people have a forgiving side to them, Pink.
I LOVE this stuff. No hate here.
I love my Buy-and-Hold friends. I love the New School SWR studies. I love the Retire Early and Indexing boards. I love the research I did with Wade showing us how to reduce stock investing risk by 70 percent. I love this new internet communications medium that permits us to spread the word so effectively. I love the idea of working with people like Jack Bogle and Bill Bernstein and Larry Swedroe and all the others to bring this economic crisis to an end.
I suppose you might say that I hate the human misery that we have seen with this economic crisis. But an argument can be made that we never would have worked up the courage to achieve these advances without the crisis. So even that can be looked at as a positive when examined from a funny angle.
Still, I DO want to bring the economic crisis to an end. Grrrr….
Rob
The Pink Unicorn says
There you go again, Rob. Talking about someone going to prision is a threat. It is also defamation.
Your hate is driving your delusion.
Rob says
If you truly believed it was defamation, you would sue me, Pink.
Your 11-year Campaign of Terror has caused millions of middle-class people to suffer failed retirements. It is the biggest act of financial fraud in the history of the United States. There is nothing else in our history that is even remotely comparable.
I am your best friend in the world. I put a thread to the Motley Fool board on November 13, 2002 asking for help in getting John Greaney removed from the community. Had that effort been successful, you wouldn’t be facing a prison sentence today. Please name one other person who has worked this side of things as hard as I have.
And how the heck is trying to get your prison sentence reduced a threat?
I’ll get your prison sentence reduced if it’s the last thing I do! Don’t cross me. I’ve gotten prison sentences reduced before and I’ll do it again! I’m known as somebody who really can get a prison sentence reduced once he puts his mind to it! I’m vicious about it! I’ve gotten some prison sentenced reduced by five years or even more!
Do you any of your other friends “threaten” you by offering to help you move? Or by inviting you out to dinner? Or by lending you tools?
The horror!
There are so many “threats” we have to worry about in today’s world!
Take care, man.
Rob
The Pink Unicorn says
Rob,
I won’t sink to your level of a threat. I don’t carelessly throw around comments about lawsuits, prison terms, etc.
You are so consumed with hate, you can’t see the truth.
Rob says
I wish you all good things, Pink.
Rob
The Pink Unicorn says
Rob,
Your pain, hate and anger keep you from seeing the truth.
Rob says
Yeah, yeah.
Rob